Interviewing John Warner of Over The Moon Games

Sep 22, 2013

First off we at Urban Gamerz 411 would like to thank John Warner from Over The Moon for taking the time do this interview with us.

UG411 - To start tell us a little about your self and what made you say Gaming is where i want to be.

John Warner - I've been excited by the idea of making games for as long as I can remember. For me, the opportunity to explore different, creative worlds is what drove me to play games as a kid, and has evolved into my desire to create them. I've been in the games industry for a little under a decade now, and have had the opportunity to work on AAA titles as well as on smaller teams. However, indie development has been the most rewarding by far, allowing me to put that initial inspiration into everything that I do.

UG411 - when you speak of having worked on AAA titles, which AAA titles could you say you have been able to work on ? and how was the experience of working on such Games?

John Warner - Company of Heroes and Dawn of War II have been the biggest games I've worked on.
The experience was fantastic! I learned a lot, having been surrounded by really talented and skilled people;
I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's great to be able to work on something that has that much depth and reach, and at the same time, it's completely different from indie development. In indie development, team sizes are smaller so people end up wearing a lot of hats, but on a game like COH, you meet people who are incredibly specialized and have a tremendous amount of knowledge in their given fields. It's a pretty extraordinary learning opportunity.

UG411 - seeing as you have been able to work on these AAA games at what point did you say to your self ok its time to start working on your on Companie and Game, and how did Over The Moon come to be ?

John Warner - Well like all entrepreneurs, it takes a few tries. I've always wanted to make independent games, and have been doing it for several years. Most of them you probably haven't heard of, and none are really worth mentioning. The Fall may become a success, but there's been lots of small failed attempts before now. I think that like anything, it's a gradual process and it has to be that way because it takes a while to amass the skill required to work on your own stuff. Over The Moon is just one more step along that road.

UG411 - lets talk a little about your up coming title The Fall. For our readers that don know what The Fall is tell us a Little about the Game and what Great things we can all expect from it?

John Warner - The Fall is a sci-fi platformer that's inspired by Super Metroid and Monkey Island. It features rich, meaningful environments that players explore by investigating and solving traditional adventure-game style puzzles. Story-wise, you
play the role of an AI onboard an armored combat suit, who takes control of the suit in order to help the human pilot, who's hanging unconscious inside. However, the AI is bound by her own laws of robotics and struggles with her own self limitation as she attempts to help her human friend. One of the big project goals in The Fall is to smoothly blend story and gameplay; puzzles are designed to be themed in a way that mirrors the protagonist's development. So, as the AI struggles with her robotics laws, players are presented with puzzles that somehow involve breaking rules.

UG411 - I must say just from watching the Kickstarter Video which can be reached via our site the Game looks Amazing. Seeing as the Goal for The Fall has been Reached and passed with still 19 days to go on the kickstarter website do you have any plans of porting the game on to any upcoming platforms?

John Warner - Thanks very much! And yes, absolutely. Going multi-platform has always been my goal, it's just a matter of getting the time and money to make that happen. Things are falling into place though. As of yesterday, Over The Moon is now an official Nintendo developer and we will certainly be coming to the Wii U. After that, I'd like to get on PS4 and Xbox, and I'm sure that will come in time. If the game sells fairly well on PC/Mac/Linux/Wii, I don't see anything that would stop us expanding from there.

UG411 - What advice do you have for aspiring Game developers?

John Warner - The best advice, I think, is to just get started, weather or not you think you have the skills to make anything meaningful. Go grab a free copy of unity3d and dive into some tutorials. If you enjoy it, keep at it. That goes for newbies and experienced folk alike.
I talk to a lot of guys who want to get into indie game development but they don't, because they invission a huge project that they could never do by themselves. The only reason I'm able to make so much content by myself is because I don't think about how much content it is; Just dive in and start working. I think that over-thinking is a huge problem. The Fall started with just one character model and a vauge idea that I wanted to play around with doing something kind-of Metroid-like. Everything else, including the game's premise and its high-minded themes just came out of that when I stopped worying about what the project was going to look like or if I should be doing it.

UG411 - I must say that is very true thinking just leaves to procrastinating and letting others bring you down which i always say cover your ears turn everything els off and get to work. so when could we expect to play The Fall ?

John Warner - I'm hoping to have The Fall released on PC/Mac by March. Consoles will come shortly after that!

UG411 - That is Great can't wait to Play it. last but not least what are your aspirations for your self and Over The Moon in the Future?

John Warner - I know this sounds a little simple, but my goal is to continue making fun, meaningful games and I've left it at that. My big goal is simply to be sustainable as an indie, so I can generate enough revenue to continue making the games that I want to make. I used to have a lot of goals about pushing games forward as an art form, but I think that to the degree that I'm simply working on what naturally inspires me, I'll be in the right place to do what I can. For now, I'm just going to focus on making the best games I possibly can and hope enough people agree with my sensibilities such that I can continue making them :)

UG411 - Thats great to hear and we can't wait to see your future work.

John Warner - Thank you very much Jonathan

UG411 - do you have anything you would like to say to our readers?

John Warner - Please check out The Fall, we could use their help reaching our stretch goals -- that's what's going to make the game really great :)

UG411 - awesome with that said all of us at Urban Gamerz 411 would Really like to thank you again for the opportunity and taking the time to talk with us. We hope to doit again soon in the near future.

John Warner - Thank you! I'll be keeping a keen eye on Urban Gamerz 411.

Interviewer Jonathan I.